This invention relates to a package for storing and dispensing a plurality of flowable substances and, more particularly, to such a package wherein the flowable substances are segregated during storage and dispensed either as a mixture or separately.
Many millions of aerosol packages containing flowable materials are manufactured and sold annually. The most common of the substances or materials packaged in fluid valve-actuated pressure containers and dispensed through such valves are those materials which can be premixed and stored. Thus, the materials have been premixed, packaged under pressure in a single compartment aerosol package and such mixtures of materials are dispensed from the aerosol package in admixture with the propellant gas. This latter aspect can also be detrimental when low foam products are desired.
However, other desirable materials when mixed together react and have beneficial effects provided they are used within relatively short time periods before loss of efficacy, i.e. through decomposition or deterioration, has occurred.
The typical examples of materials which react when mixed and, because of such reaction, must be kept separated from each other until used are oxidants and reductants for controlled heat release with "hot" shaving foams, dyes and developers for hair colorings, epoxy resin based paints and cements which harden upon mixing with a hardening agent and compounds which are desired for their ability to release materials such as oxygen, i.e. toothpastes and peroxide compounds, which, if premixed and stored, tend to lose their desired properties through decomposition of the peroxide with the added danger of increased pressure build-up in the package in addition to loss of efficacy of the mixture. Further, it is also often advantageous in order to protect the user and/or the products flavor, texture or performance to be sure that the propellant does not contact or become admixed with the product.
Prior to the present invention various attempts have been made to provide an aerosol package in which materials may be stored separately under pressure and the stored materials dispensed under pressure as a stream or spray. These prior art aerosol packages, while effectively separating product from propellant, do not provide for the storage of a plurality of products which can be dispensed under pressure simultaneously as separate streams or sprays or admixed and dispensed as a single stream or spray. Further, among the difficulties encountered by the prior art has been the inability to provide reliable efficient discharge of properly related amounts of materials from the separate storage or product compartment. Usually the product compartment tends to contract non-uniformly as its contents are discharged, thus allowing improper proportions of materials to be discharged and/or incomplete discharge of all the material from the container.